Sunday, July 14, 2013

BJCP stands for “Beer Judge Certification Program”. Mike and
I have been taking classes for the past year, tasting classic beers in every
beer style and judging them based on 5 categories – Aroma, Appearance, Flavor,
Mouthfeel, and Overall Impression. We started the class as beer snobs, knowing
we liked good beer, but not always knowing how to articulate WHY we like
certain styles or brand names compared with others. Throughout the class we
learned how to verbalize flavors and aromas (whether good or “off”) and how to
score beers based on the basic categories.

Yesterday we took the “final exam” to become provisional
judges (so we can judge homebrew competitions). The exam consists of 6
different beers administered by the exam coordinator in 15 minute intervals. I
thought mechanical engineering exams were intense… but the 1.5 hours of
swirling, sniffing, and sipping turned out to be just as intense!

We will not know how well we did for several months. Our
papers need to be scanned, graded, double checked, and finally approved for
grade distribution.

With the beer knowledge that we have acquired through this
class, we are excited to put together tasting classes like this at our own
place once we are up and running!

Wednesday, July 3, 2013

We are still looking for real estate. We are finishing up our business plan with the financial information and the last piece to the puzzle is the lease price and square foot size. Ideas keep falling through for one reason or another. It is hard to sit still and not get anxious. With the holiday week upon us, the real estate shopping is slow. It has been a strange week. So, instead of real estate shopping, we will be studying and practicing our judging skills for our upcoming Beer Judge Certification Exam next week!